Animated video educates West Africans about Ebola prevention

The Ebola virus spread through West Africa because the population behaved in ways consistent with their culture that also enabled its proliferation. Getting the word out to people about how to contain the virus was difficult, since it was at its deadliest in poor communities where mistrust, resistance to proper care, and lack of understanding of the virus and how it is passed from person to person are common. Government and other official efforts to raise awareness were proving futile.

That’s when the United Methodist Church stepped in with its network of trusted clergy and lay leaders who lived in the affected areas. The Church’s communication arm chose partners to produce the video, leading to 10 production activities in 10 different countries. Of special interest is the choice of an 11-year-old boy from Sierra Leone as one of the key narrators of the English language version of the video; his 9-year-old brother is the narrator of another version in a local language. Check out the videos here.

United Methodist Communications took another progressive step by releasing the video under a Creative Commons license, ensuring it could be shown by anybody without violating a copyright. A compelling animation style completes the package that leads us to present PR Daily’s 2014 Video Award for Best Animated Video to United Methodist Communications’ Neelley Hicks and the production team she assembled with Chocolate Moose Media and iheed.